


I Like You, Too

by HuaFeiHua



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe(s), Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 6,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7992433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuaFeiHua/pseuds/HuaFeiHua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another Eremika drabble series. Updated spontaneously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Like You, Too

Year 852. Wall Maria had finally been taken back for the long-term, and the vast majority of titans within the walls were exterminated.

The sun was shining brightly down on a meadow where two teenage soldiers were sitting up against a tree, a book lying open on their laps.

"We're getting closer to our goal, Mikasa. We just have to slay the Beast Titan and capture the Homelands now," the boy said, his green eyes nostalgic as they leafed through the well-worn pages of their book.

"Mhm," the girl quietly replied, then looked up at the sky. It was full of cumulus puffballs, and they lazily drifted across the horizon.

"And then, we can go outside, to see the lakes of lava, the vast fields of sand, and the ocean," he rambled, not noticing the girl's wandering attention.

"Eren, it might be years before we can get there."

Eren looked up from his book, his hunched posture making it perfect for looking Mikasa in the eye. At age seventeen, he'd finally surpassed Mikasa in height, who had stopped growing at a hundred and seventy centimeters, but now, at one hundred eighty centimeters tall, he had to look distinctly downwards to talk to her.

"Does it matter?" he simply asked. "I mean, as long as you're there with me, I'm sure everything will turn out okay."

Mikasa laughed lightly, then kissed him on the cheek. "What happened to ' _I'll kill them all_ ,' hm?"

Eren flipped the book closed and wrapped his arms around Mikasa's waist, resting his cheek on her hair. "Times change. People change. Isn't it just nice to sit and relax for a few minutes?"

She relaxed, then snuggled closer to him, breathing a sigh of content as she did so. "我喜歡你," she whispered in a tongue long forgotten to most.

Eren knew snippets of it though, and this was one of them. "我也喜歡你.*"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *我也喜歡你 (Wŏ yě xīn huān nĭ) means "I like you, too" in Chinese. I am half Asian and I live in an majorly Asian community, where I currently take Chinese 3/4 in school. Please do not give me crap for adding Chinese into the drabble. I know most of you headcanon Mikasa as a Japanese speaker, but I can't speak Japanese, and Google Translate sucks.  
> Also, you may be wondering why she didn't say "I love you." It's a cultural thing. Too lazy to explain.


	2. Fireflies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> modern au! they go camping and find fireflies.

"We're doing _what_?"

Eren looked incredulously at his girlfriend of three years. He'd known her for even longer, and in all the time they'd been together, it was a pretty well established fact that _he_ was the spontaneous one and she just rolled with whatever ideas he happened to have.

"We're going camping at the waterfall for a few nights," Mikasa nonchalantly replied, smiling patiently at him. An empty duffel bag was slung over her shoulder, and there was a disturbing amount of camping gear secured tightly to the roof of her beat-up car. "Now hurry up and pack, they won't let us into the park after five pm," she lightly continued, handing him the duffel bag.

"But I have to study for next semester's classes!" he complained. "I can't go _camping_ all of a sudden!"

Mikasa looked him dead in the eye. "Eren. It's summer break. Please get with the program and understand that you are getting time off and should relax. Or do you need me to drag you?"

Eren paled slightly and begrudgingly took the duffel from her. "You're right," he said, "I'll be out in a few minutes."

Mikasa smiled.

* * *

It was already late evening by the time Eren and Mikasa finished pitching their tent and setting up camp. The sun was down and the stars were already out by the time they ate dinner.

The waterfall was quietly roaring in the background and the two of them sat in contented silence, the only light coming from an old lantern Mikasa brought. Eventually, Mikasa picked up her lantern and got up from the old picnic table they were sitting at.

"Let's go to the waterfall," she said with a smile and offered Eren her hand.

Wordlessly but also with a smile, he took it, and guided only by a dim lantern, they plunged into the dark together.

Slowly, though, as if by magic, one by one, little yellow lights began to dance in front of them, illuminating their path, even if it was only ever so slightly.

When at last they reached the waterfall itself, the moon had risen and hit the water in such a way that it practically glowed. Fireflies' lights flickered and blinked as they hung lazily in the open air and Eren was struck dumb with awe at the sight.

Mikasa put out the lantern and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, taking in the fresh scents of the woods: the dry, earthy peat moss, the clean petrichor of the nearby plants, and the indescribable smell of fresh air. A gentle breeze was rustling the leaves in the trees as the trees themselves quietly creaked and groaned when they moved.

She opened her eyes again.

The fireflies were still floating around, the waterfall was still quietly roaring, and everything was still as magical as the moment it first begun.


	3. Chapter 3

Moonlight gently filtered through the narrow window to the room Mikasa shared with Sasha. Sasha was fast asleep, her breathing gentle and rhythmic.

Mikasa couldn't sleep, however. So much had happened that day, from the abduction of Eren to almost dying with him out in the field. So much had happened, yet so much more _could_ have happened, and for once, Mikasa wished Eren didn't want to play the knight in shining armor quite so much.

She closed her eyes and rolled over so that the moonlight wouldn't shine in her eyes. She'd come so _close_ to telling him she loved him, to showing him, to dying. He'd saved her, and while she had a few fractured ribs, she was alive.

But he still didn't know.

She heard the door quietly click open. As the hinges softly creaked and groaned, she knew in an instant that it wasn't Sasha going out to the outhouse. Instantly, she leveled her breathing and rolled over again and pretended to be fast asleep.

The soft pitter-patter of bare feet sounded throughout the small room and Mikasa felt her heart race as they slowly got closer to her. She heard the wood of the bunk beneath her softly groan as someone used it as a stepstool. She heard the side of her own bunk creak and she assumed someone was watching her.

The light of the moon was blocked out by whoever this was, and they were leaning closer to her. She could smell their breath. It wasn't _bad_ , but it _was_ terribly familiar, as though she'd smelled it just recently.

They cursed softly. "She's sleeping."

Eren. It was him; Mikasa knew his voice like the back of her hand.

She felt him brush the hair out of her face and quietly say, "Maybe it's better if she doesn't remember what I'm about to say."

Mikasa felt her heart thump in her chest as he started to speak. She desperately wanted to move, to let him know she wasn't asleep, that she knew what was happening, but something within her held her back.

"About today, Mikasa. Out in the field, when Hannes got eaten and I was crying and you were crying, you were about to kiss me, weren't you?"

Her stomach did flips and a few butterflies spawned in it. She felt her heart beat against her sternum again, and she struggled to keep her breaths slow and even. _Yes_ , she thought.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? I protect you because I _love_ you. I don't like it when _you_ protect _me_ , but that's just because I saved you all those years ago, and I should be capable of saving you again."

At the words 'I love you,' Mikasa forgot how to breathe.

"That scarf promise is always open, just remember that. G'night Mika. Sweet dreams," Eren whispered, and Mikasa felt him press his lips against her forehead.

Mikasa opened her eyes. She didn't say anything and she saw Eren's eyes widen in surprise at the fact that she was awake. In the pale light of the moon, she saw his face flush.

She pulled him closer and gave him a kiss. Not on the forehead, not on the cheek, but on the lips. A proper kiss.

"Goodnight Eren," she whispered back when she let him go.

The last thing she remembered seeing before falling asleep was his smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still figuring out how notes work. i'm really sorry. this was a request from quite a while ago from captainkaltar on tumblr. yes. they're cool. i don't think they know i'm cross-posting. oops. uh if you find this. uh. hi. surprise. thanks for the request back then. yup.


	4. When It's Over

"Come _on_ , Eren, we have to keep running," Mikasa cried, dragging the boy in question by the arm behind her as they ran. "The lab's going to explode any minute now!"

"Mikasa, I'm sure we're far enough away, if you would _just_ slow down long enough to let me transform-"

"You transformed forty-five minutes ago, you are _not_ capable of doing anything if you transform now. Please just trust me on this," she begged, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

Honestly, he should have been grateful that they even got out of that lab _alive_. After the mission to retake Shiganshina had gone horribly wrong and the few surviving Recon Corps members were captured, they were taken far, far beyond Wall Maria. They were dragged through forests and fields, mountains and meadows, over hill and dale as they hit the dusty trail.

They were eventually brought to another wall, the fourth wall if you would, outside of which was an enormous research lab near the ocean.

As it turned out, they were all part of a huge scientific experiment on human psychology that took place on an enormous artificially created island between two landmasses none of the Corps had ever heard of: Greenland and Europe, and it was funded by a thing called… Germany? It didn't matter right now.

Inside the lab (They weren't allowed to visit the ocean; Armin was _devastated_ ), they'd been asked a thousand mundane questions before getting placed in solitary confinement.

How she even got all the way out here with Eren in tow and Armin setting up a bomb behind them was frankly still a little muddled to Mikasa, but she didn't have time to question what the hell had just happened. All that mattered to her now was getting Eren out of this place alive and back to Wall Maria. Where they could be safe, where they could be a beacon of hope in this desolate world.

She wasn't sure where their comrades were, but they had Hange and Armin. Mikasa knew they were in good hands.

"Mikasa-"

"Eren." Mikasa suddenly stopped, pulling him aside. She wasn't sure if they'd be affected by the explosion of the lab, but if he kept grumbling like this, they'd be found anyway. "Please just shut up and do as I ask. I know I'm not your mom, but I love you too much to just have you die on me for something as _stupid_ as you talking too much."

She was crying more openly now, but her intuition suddenly spiked and something told her the bomb was going to go off soon. Without warning, she yanked Eren close to her and hugged him tightly to her chest as a loud explosion suddenly went off and she felt a wave of almost suffocating heat suddenly blast into her face. Her eyes were closed tightly, thank goodness, but she could still see the light created by the bomb by seeing yellow and pink on her eyelids. Whatever Armin had just detonated, it seemed very powerful.

Her ears were ringing and she couldn't hear a thing; she was sure her ears were bleeding at the noise, though that may have just been a hallucination.

When she opened her eyes at last, black spots danced in front of them and the lab was on fire. The smell of burning flesh and blood filled the air, though that was already something they were used to at this point as soldiers.

She let go of Eren and gave him a once-over. Ash was settling in his hair (and probably hers as well, when she thought about it) and he seemed to have a few spots of blood and smudges of dirt here and there, but for the most part, they both seemed fine, save the fact that they were both probably partially deaf now.

The ringing in Mikasa's ears grew louder and she could feel a headache coming on in the back of her skull. She shook it off and yelled at Eren again to follow her.

He looked confused for a moment, but when she grabbed his hand and started running, he took the hint.

They ran for what felt like forever, the adrenaline of it all tiring them but dragging them forward all the same. If they stopped it felt wrong and they pushed themselves to continue, farther, faster, in order to reach the fourth wall. To reach Wall Maria, Shiganshina. To their home.

Eventually, their humanity got the best of them. When they reached the fourth wall just before dawn the next day, they collapsed in a heap at the base, exhausted and overwhelmed at the events of the last few days.

Mikasa tried to say something, but still couldn't hear herself, though the ringing in her ears and the migraine had subsided. So she tapped Eren on the shoulder and reached for a stick to draw in the dirt with.

_Do you think anyone else survived?_ was the first thing she wrote, then looked hopefully at Eren, who shook his head. He gently took the stick from Mikasa's hand and scrawled:

_What now? It's just the two of us._

_We can start anew_ , Mikasa replied. _Run off, never look back. Even with Historia as queen, I don't think we can lead the Corps on our own. It would probably be best if everyone thought we were dead._ A lump rose in her throat as she continued writing. _There's no one left who really cares anymore, anyway._

She unceremoniously tossed the stick to the ground when she was done and covered the lower half of her face with her scarf.

Eren reached over and grabbed the stick again, scratching out his previous question and replacing it with:

_You wanna do that? It would be dangerous. And we can't just abandon humanity like that, doomed to just be lab rats for all of eternity._

_What would we do if we returned?_ Mikasa countered, getting a second stick.

_I dunno. Settle down, fight titans, go on with living, I suppose._

_You're the one who spat at the soldiers for being more complacent than cows. We'd probably be labeled as a waste of time and resources if we returned to the walls like this; do you really want to live like that?_

Eren frowned. She did have a point, after all.

_Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs everywhere. We're all going to die eventually_ , Mikasa continued, then with shaky handwriting wrote, _Run away with me?_

Eren peered at her curiously and she could feel a blush rising on her cheeks. She reached over to scratch out that last part when he caught her arm and gently pried the stick from her hand and tossed it away.

He shifted into a squat, as though he might need to jump up and run at any moment. With his own stick he wrote very neatly in the dirt:

_Yes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think this is one of my favorite chapters for this drabble series. t'was another request from captainkaltar on tumblr! posted months ago! i'm bad at telling people things. as a note i sometimes switch between recon corps and survey corps. it's literally all on my mood. don't know if that'll be important later. really not sure why chapter 1's notes are here too.


	5. Pearls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they finally get to the god damn ocean

Mikasa closed her eyes took a deep breath, smelling the gentle breeze that was blowing on her face. It smelled mildly of salt and saltwater plants, though also of dirt and a mysterious scent* she couldn't quite put her finger on. The air was heavy with sea mist, and she could feel the little droplets of moisture hitting her face, making it cooler than it already was.

The dull crash and roar of waves, the ever so vast expanse of water extending as far as her eyes could see, it was the _ocean_ , clear as can be.

The sky wasn't exactly cloudless; in fact, it was rather a rather dreary day, with the clouds covering the sun and far all the way across the horizon. It was also quite cold, causing Mikasa to shiver and snuggle her scarf even more.

But she didn't mind. Her boys had made it to the ocean, alive, after all these years. All those years of war, of fighting… of death. All those difficult years of famine, of disease, and poverty. After all those years of living inside the walls, her boys had made it to their dream of the ocean and she couldn't have been prouder.

"Hey Mikasa!" she heard Armin call from amidst the waves. "Eren found something he wants to give to you!"

Mikasa opened her eyes and saw a soaking wet Eren staggering towards her, his hand clutching something. She waited patiently for him and Armin to get back to her at shore.

"Look," Armin excitedly said when they reached her. Eren opened his fist and revealed a cluster of smooth, black-blue, oblong objects.

"They're called mussels," Armin explained and pulled one apart from the bunch. "They're edible bivalve mollusks that thrive when exposed to both the ocean and the open air, and while they don't look like it, they have a single foot…"

As their friend rambled on, Eren was busy trying to pry open one of the larger mussels until finally he crushed its fragile shell with his hands.

Dark orange flesh squished out, momentarily distracting Armin from his monologue. Now curious, Eren stuck his finger into the mass and pulled out a few small, shining, pinkish-white globs.

Armin gasped. " _Pearls_!" he exclaimed, his already bubbly and happy expression becoming ecstatic. "They're made when a grain of sand gets into the mussel, it starts to irritate the flesh inside, so…"

Eren examined the tiny pearls that he had gotten from the mussel. They weren't very large, a few of them being hardly any larger than a grain of sand, but they were rather pretty. He grunted, then tossing the rest of the bundle away, took Mikasa's hand and placed the pearls in them.

"Pretty pearls for a pretty girl," he mumbled before turning away and running back into the waves.

Mikasa smiled, a quiet tear running down her cheek for no apparent reason.

Armin looked at her curiously, a gentle, knowing smile on his face. "In the olden days, pearls were a symbol of tears, you know," he told her. "I don't think it was Eren's intention to make you sad."

Mikasa looked at her friend with a somewhat startled expression. "Oh, but Armin, not all tears are sad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *bubblegum. the smell she couldn't recognize was bubblegum. idk, it was in my notes from the last time i visited the beach: "smells mildly of salt, seaweed, dirt, and bubblegum."  
> this was actually posted on tumblr from my own accord before being posted on ff. which i'm cross-posting from. yes i'm still doing that. i have like 13 stories there and 5 stories here not counting the one that's been marinating in my drafts for days now. i love being an author.


	6. Sunrise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> behold the wee childrens

"Hey. Hey, Mikasa, wake up."

Mikasa's eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was a pair of bright green eyes gazing down at her, seemingly glowing in the dark.

"Eren? It's the middle of the night; we have to tend the fields in the morning. You should rest," she rasped, feeling the pull of sleep drag her down into wonderland again.

Eren violently shook her shoulders. "Wake up, Mikasa. I wanted to watch the sunrise with Armin this morning, but he keeps insisting you should come with me today. He says he's too tired," he begged.

Mikasa sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She blinked a few times, trying to get her gaze to focus and glancing around the empty former warehouse that they had called home for almost a year now. She squinted out the broken window and noticed the stars against the dark blue sky fading.

"Pleaaase?" Eren begged. Mikasa groaned, but knowing that there was no way either she or Eren were going to get back to sleep at this point groggily nodded.

" _Yes_ ," Eren whispered as his face split into a grin. He grabbed Mikasa's hand and helped her up, then began pulling her towards the ladder that led to the roof.

The wind was cold that morning. It nipped at Mikasa's nose, her cheeks, tugged her hair out from beneath her scarf. The stars were fading fast, the sky in the east already a dim grey color.

She looked at Eren, who sat next to her. His eyes were bright with a happiness and enthusiasm that she hadn't seen him wear in months. She smiled.

Dawn broke beautifully over the half hour that the two sat up on that roof. The sky gradually changed from grey to a dark orange, then slowly changed into a glowing light orange. A sliver of bright yellow-orange started to peek over the walls and allowed the sky to clear.

It was _gorgeous_.

"How was the sunrise?" Armin cheerfully asked once the two came down from the roof. His eyes were bright and alert, as though he had been awake for hours.

Eren yawned and stretched while Mikasa smiled.

"It was lovely, Armin. You should have been there," she answered, but Armin just laughed in reply.

He seemed like he was about to say something, but Eren was tugging at her sleeve, looking impatient.

"We have work to do!" he said.

Mikasa glanced at Armin, who gave her a sheepish smile.

Oh well. The moment had been nice while it lasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why do chapter 1's notes keep showing up on the latest chapters w hat.


	7. Wildfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> behold. fire.

Maybe he should have known by now that playing with fire was no game.

Maybe he should have known by now that matches, with their precious little flames, were not a toy.

Maybe he should have known by now that the euphoria that often followed starting a fire was not something that affected others.

There was only one person who could control him when he felt his urges. While he was harsh and bright and burning, most alive when he could feel the heat on his face, she was soft and gentle and cool, showing herself best when the cold breezes of the night brushed softly against her face.

If he was the sun, then she was his moon. His opposite, his counterpart, the one who completed him. He knew she loved him more than anything, and he loved her to the ends of the earth in return.

The incident began like any other. He struck a match and lit the world ablaze, feeding the flames and watching them grow. He was filled with that distinct euphoria and gratification that came only when he started fires.

He heard her breaths, those distinct, wheezing coughs that came with the inhalation of smoke. He heard the lovely cracklings and snaps of fire as the fire licked at her skin, setting her on fire.

He hardly noticed her pounding on the door. Her screams for help. He hardly even noticed it when they stopped.

He did notice it when the sirens began to blare and round the corner. He did notice it when the firefighters burst down the door and pulled out a blackened body.

He noticed the street sign. Oh no.

He noticed the house number. _Oh no_.

Frantically, he looked at the body. _**Oh no**_.

Suddenly, fire no longer gave him life. It no longer gave him happiness. Fire meant death, destruction, and grief.

His love, his moon, his everything. He had burned her. She was gone.

Maybe he should have known.

Maybe he should have known that he shouldn't be playing with fire if he didn't want to get burned.

But he got burned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "behold. fire." cue primitive humans making primitive human noises as they are fascinated by fire.  
> this one's quieter. there's no names, as i'm sure you've noticed. but that's okay. idk i was thinking about fire as i wrote this.


	8. Ghost Bride

He had heard the rumors for a while now, the ones about the ghost bride. No one, neither man, no woman, nor neither, dared venture out of the village after sunset. Those who did rarely found her, but the dangerous possibility of it always kept people away.

There was a single thread in common that all who saw her did describe in the most vivid detail: her piercing gaze, which went straight into your soul as she stared at you. It was enough to stifle anyone’s breath.

Eren thought about those rumors as he walked through the dark woods by his village, searching for his ox. He stared balefully up at the pale, milky-white full moon rising slowly up from the horizon, its thin, delicate shafts of light striking the leaf-littered forest floor. The full moon was the time when there were the most sightings of the ghost bride.

He sighed, frustrated. The harvest moon festival was probably starting back home, but he  _ needed _ his ox to till his fields when spring came again in a few months. He couldn’t celebrate this harvest with a clear conscience if he lost the only thing that would give him a successful one next year. He could still hear the music coming from the village now, faint but clear.

Actually, that was strange. He was certainly too far away to be able to hear the festivities from where he was.

He looked up at the top of the hill in front of him, and there it was: an old-fashioned bridal trail parading passed, and there inside the bridal carriage was a woman so beautiful she took Eren’s breath away.

He forgot about the rumors, about his ox, and the dangers of the night. The world now consisted of himself and this beautiful woman.

She smiled at him as the bridal train came to a halt and beckoned him towards her. He gladly obliged.

She stared at him with large, intelligent grey eyes unlike any he had ever seen before; he found it difficult to look away.

She reached out and lifted his chin so that she could see his face better. Her fingers felt as cold as ice, temporarily breaking the spell she had cast over him. But the second she smiled at him, exposing her pearly white teeth as she laughed, it all melted away again, and he couldn’t help but grin back at her.

She suddenly leaned out her window and pulled his face close to hers and placed her freezing lips on his.

Suddenly, she didn’t feel so cold anymore. She felt warm, even. 

The carriage door opened up, inviting him in, and he gladly entered.

The village, the ox, and all his responsibilities forgotten, Eren rode away with the beautiful girl.

The ghost bride had found her groom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "oh my god where were you it's been foreverr". hnnng *dies*  
> so i actually started this drabble in one of my tiny notebooks during mandarin class like waay back in october/november because we were watching this one movie called mr. vampire which is kind of like ghost busters but in canto. so i found the tiny notebook and this drabble and was like "i should finish this" and voila!  
> anyway that's it for now, kids!


	9. but if you close your eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> universe where everything's the same except the colossal titan didn't bust down the wall... that day.

Dreams only last for so long.

Eren knew this. When he was younger, it was his dream to join the military, go into the Recon Corps, and free the world of the abhorrent abominations known simply as titans.

But his father got to him first. He showed him the history of the world, the horrors of what lay outside the walls, and how truly terrible humanity was. How nothing was quite as it seemed, and that to slay all the titans would be an insult to their history.

The walls surrounding their city no longer seemed like a prison, but rather more like a guardian, keeping them safe from the atrocities that pawed at their little bubble.

He grew up. He moved out of Shiganshina. He reconnected with a girl his father introduced him to when he was nine, married her, and they lived in happy, peaceful solitude in the mountains. She sewed. He hunted. No one disturbed them. Rarely did they have visitors, and even then they were most frequently her parents, his parents, or her younger brother. Oh, and his old best friend Armin.

It was like a dream. 

But dreams only last for so long.

He was twenty-four, as was she. Married for exactly one year, with the news of a third family member coming in just a few short months just barely whispered into his ears. They were visiting his hometown Shiganshina, walking through the dusty lanes he knew so well at dusk, and the new information shocked him to laughter.

“Mikasa! Are you serious?” He had a smile on his face that rivalled the sheer joy he felt as a young boy, messing around in butterfly-filled fields with Armin.

She smiled warmly and tugged rather absently on the tips of her long, black hair. “Serious as ever,” she replied.

He laughed and pulled her into a hug. He buried his face into her hair, inhaling her pleasant scent of handmade soap that he knew so well. He closed his eyes and savored the moment of euphoria.

It was like a dream.

But dreams only last for so long.

Grey clouds rolled over the walls, bringing darkness from above. Opening his eyes, though still clutching his wife, he looked up.

The illusion of safety that had slowly crept upon him since his earth-shattering history lesson with his father shattered once more as the head of a huge, skinless titan loomed over the top of the wall surrounding Shiganshina. Fear, pure fear jolted through his body, making his palms sweat and his heart pound at just the sight of it. He pulled Mikasa still closer, and together, they trembled in fear.

Eren closed his eyes. He had the strange urge to laugh. Nothing changed, had it? No, it hadn’t… 

He focused on his own beating heart, his eyes still closed. Truly, it felt as though he had been here before.

Almost as though it had been a dream.

Well, dreams only last for so long.

He opened his eyes ever so slightly. “I love you,” he whispered, his eyes tracking two geese as they flew over the wall. As if nothing were out of the ordinary. 

Whether she heard him or not would hardly matter in a minute, but he wanted to make sure that the last words he said were ones he’d said a thousand times before to the girl he’d told them to a thousand times before.

“I love you,” he whispered. And it was like the whole world had stopped to stare at the monstrosity beyond the wall. He closed his eyes again.

“I love you.”

His last words were caught up in a blast of wind, drowning out his final whispers.

Indeed, if he closed them, it felt as though they had been there before. Nothing changes in dreams, after all. Even if they only last a short while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hadn't heard pompeii in like forever until i was in the car today and my sister played an a capella version of it and i was like "dammit"  
> so i wrote this. i've been.... super productive lately!!!!!!!!!!! just not on snk content. whoops. well yeah i have been, i'm just withholding it until the unproductive winter months. but drabbles? yeah publish those whenever.  
> requests? shoot 'em at me. here or on my [tumblr](https://a-piece-of-shipping-trash.tumblr.com/ask)!!  
> anyway that's all!!! have a greaaat daaayyy~~


	10. screaming, then silence

The mer hadn’t always been the vile seductresses they’re known for being today, they say. Some say that they had been mere mortal girls a long, long time ago, cursed by some other power to become the lurking creatures of the deep that they have become.

Eren doesn’t know if those legends are true. He knows he doesn’t  _ want _ for them to be true. After all, when you’ve dedicated your entire life to hunting down every last one of said creatures for want of revenge for your deceased mother, it’s so much easier to have peace of mind killing a creature with an expressive human face when you tell yourself they are nothing but sinful meat sacks, lower than the scum on the bottom of the boat. 

Being face-to-face with one now, he’s suddenly not so sure.

He’s not sure what force in the universe compelled him to freeze, leaving the tip of his harpoon just centimeters away from the unblinking girl’s face, but now that he’s looked into her dull, grey eyes, he’s not sure what force in the universe can compel him to  _ unfreeze _ .

He trembles, a feeling of mixed awe, fear, and infatuation growing in his chest, as she blinks slowly at him, the dullness present in her eyes fading away to something more curious, intelligent. Affectionate?

_ “Jaeger!” _ a voice calls from a ways away, breaking the spell. With a yelp, Eren drops his harpoon, where it falls harmlessly into the empty ocean, and spins around to see his crewmate Jean Kirschstein approaching with his arms crossed. 

“Fucking  _ hell _ , Jaeger, what were you doing just now? We’re in siren territory; you should know by now that it’s double up or else risk getting dragged into the abyss,” he says. “Captain’s gonna be pissed as hell when he finds out that you’ve lost that harpoon.” Eren opens up his mouth to protest but Jean cuts him off. “Don’t go around feeding me those lies; I saw you drop it in the ocean. There’s no denying it.”

“Why are you concerned about whether or not a siren takes me anyway? We hate each other,” he replies, a tinge of irritation in his voice. “I’m pretty sure if  _ we _ were partners you’d toss me over the second you got the chance,” he mutters under his breath.

Jean rolls his eyes. “Because Marco would never forgive me.”

Eren huffs and crosses his arms confrontationally. “What do you want, Kirschstein?”

“Your  _ partner _ is looking for you. He wants to go study those ‘beauties of the deep’ before it gets too dark. You guys are childhood friends, right? You should tell him to stop studying them and start hunting them; if he keeps this up, he’s going to be pulled under, partner or not.”

Eren grunts. “He’s too smart for that, you and I both know.”

“Whatever, just keep him alive. We can’t afford to keep losing crew members to these things.” With that, Jean decides to stalk off. Eren knows he should be following, but he’s once again strangely compelled to look back before he does.

Two onyx eyes stare back at him for the briefest of seconds before vanishing into the deep, and he’s left scratching his head as to whether or not he imagined it.

~***~

The stars are out, hardly a cloud smudging the beautiful night sky, and for some reason, Eren can’t sleep. Perhaps it’s because they’re in siren territory. The uneasiness is hard to ignore, yet he’s the only one awake.  Everyone else in his cabin is fast asleep, from the muscle man Reiner sounding like ten bulldozers at fortissimo to the similarly silent sleeper Bertholt sleeping with all his limbs tangled into knots. 

The boat rocks back and forth, bobbing gently with the waves as they lap against the hull. Normally, it’s a calming lullaby; tonight, it’s irritating at best. The eerie, echoing melody of the mer floating in through the windows and haunting the halls of the boat doesn’t help, either. Exhausted but restless, Eren slides out of bed, hoping to silence one or two of the voices.

He hardly looks over the side of the boat when he sees that _one specific mermaid_ _again_ , the one with the black hair and eyes, and the china pale skin. She blinks at him, her eyes wide and doe-like, and he hesitates with his harpoon once again. She beckons him to drop it, and he obeys, leaning over the rail to observe the creature which has him so enchanted.

“What’s your name?” he whispers and finds he sincerely wants to know.

She gestures to her throat, likely indicating that she can’t talk above the water, so he leans in closer still so that he may still hear her should she talk from underwater.

It’s a mistake. 

The second he’s within range, she seizes him by the face and pulls him under the water with her. His shriek hasn’t even the time to pierce the air; he’s silenced by the ocean and the song she sings.

It’s hauntingly beautiful; he’d have stopped screaming regardless of whether or not it would have kept him from dying from the way it makes him feel. He finds himself relaxing as the mer drags them both down farther and farther into the depths of the ocean, their faces drawing closer and closer together.

At some point, his eyes close, but that does not mean he cannot still feel the kiss she presses upon his lips. Chills run down his spine as his breath leaves his lungs in bubbles and she whispers into his ear, “ _ Mikasa.” _ And suddenly, his chest is on fire.

His eyes shoot open once more, not even realizing that they are no longer descending from the black spots dancing before his eyes, and his brain screams for the precious air he has just let out hundreds of feet beneath the surface of the ocean. In a panic, he wraps his arm around the waist of the now strangely still mer and kicks with all his might towards the sweet, sweet surface.

It’s a long and terrifying few seconds, made a dozen times worse by the dead weight he’s dragging with him, but the moonlight is clearer now, he can almost see the stars above him, or perhaps they are just dancing before his eyes? His mind is a blur; he can no longer tell. The surface is so near.

The mermaid Mikasa stirs by his side, and in his addled state, it finally registers in his mind that she has been transformed into a human, drowning just as he is. Or perhaps he simply thinks such is true; it’s hard to tell when all your senses are dulling into nothingness.

He can feel the overwhelming sympathy for her in his situation, finding that he can perhaps even forgive her for dooming them like this. 

For such is the sound of forgiveness: screaming, then silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha llamas with hats references!!  
> my original plan was to turn this into a full 5k oneshot but i'm busy with a big project. plus auuugh unmotivated season is coming soon. i can already feel myself slowing down. it only gets worse when daylight savings ends. and school. (noo why did i only get a 20/20 on my chem work what how did i not set the curve why didn't i get a perfect i literally triple checked everything noooo)  
> anyway happy eremika week y'all! this is technically for the 'ocean' prompt.
> 
> anyway comments/kudos/whatever floats your boat would be nice. and as always, have a greaaaat daaaaay~~~


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